Theresa May has evoked the abuse suffered by suffragettes to express concerns about the treatment of women online and call for politics to be made more representative of British society.

The Prime Minister spent Tuesday marking the centenary of some women being given the vote.

At a reception in Parliament's Westminster Hall on Tuesday night, Mrs May described 6 February 1918 as "a day that forever changed our nation's future" as she talked of the "debt" owed to suffrage campaigners.

The Prime Minister hailed those who fought for the right to vote in the early 20th Century as having "each played their part in securing a right we should never take for granted".

But Mrs May also warned it is "a right that is still not secure today" as she described how "many survivors of domestic abuse are unable to register for fear of revealing their address to an ex-partner".

"That effectively means the threat of violence is removing women's right to vote, something that is simply unacceptable," the Prime Minister said.

She repeated the Government's commitment to plans to allow those who are at risk of abuse to register and vote anonymously, which will be debated in Parliament on Wednesday.

Image:Some women were given the right to vote 100 years ago on Tuesday

The Prime Minister said the proposed changes to electoral registration showed the 1918 Representation of the People Act was "only one step on a long journey".

Mrs May highlighted how only one-third of MPs are women today, while many other groups such as ethnic minorities, members of the LGBT community, people with disabilities or those from less privileged backgrounds "do not see themselves properly reflected in public life".

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister spoke in Manchester, the birthplace of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, where she warned modern public debate had become "oppressively hostile".

Hailing the power of social media, she called it a "force for good" to let "more voices", such as the #MeToo campaign, gain "publicity and traction".

But Mrs May said that abuse of women online was discouraging some from entering or even discussing politics.

She announced an Internet Safety Strategy to detail how social media companies are dealing with abusive material.

And she endorsed the recommendations from a Committee on Standards in Public Life report, which called for new laws to shift liability for illegal content on to social media companies.

"The issue is far from straightforward," she cautioned, "so we will consider carefully what approach we should take".

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Video:Suffragette hit by the King's horse

Mrs May also unveiled a review into the sustainability of Britain's newspaper industry amid falling circulation.

She described the free press as "one of the foundations on which our democracy is built", declaring: "It must be preserved."

The closure of hundreds of titles was "dangerous for our democracy", Mrs May warned, because voters could turn to "untrustworthy" sources of news.

Despite the broadly non-partisan speech, Mrs May did hail the Conservative's own credentials and criticised Labour for "hounding out" its most senior local government official.

She called Claire Kober's resignation over claims of bullying and sexism a "depressing coincidence" - coming in the week before the women's vote centenary.